King of the world

Gus Hiddink has led both Holland and Korea to World Cup semi-finals, so his Australia have high hopes for Germany 2006

Australian sport was never shy of a little breast-beating, and its rather neglected offspring, football, suddenly finds itself invited to share the habits of rugby and cricket. The Socceroos’ progress, via a playoff and penalties, to a first World Cup finals in 32 years drew some 83,000 Sydneysiders to the Olympic stadium last Wednesday. Afterwards, the chief-executive of Football Australia, John O’Neill, announced:

“It’s not the time to be boastful”, a statement historians believe may be unprecedented in the country’s sporting annals.

The World Cup likes a new face and Australia will be that, although they are willingly awarding much of the credit for crossing what had developed into a daunting threshold to one of the tournament’s older hands. Guus Hiddink, the Dutchman who has managed Real Madrid and Holland among others, has been head coach of Australia for barely four months and in that time has supervised an achievement